Eggelletion: Helping People Led to Prison; Lippman Not Pleading the Fifth

After he tearfully pleaded guilty to money laundering and tax crimes, former Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion called into the Joyce Kaufman show on WFTL 850-AM.

Going Away On May 3

Let me say that I never thought I'd see the day that Eggelletion would plead guilty, much less do so with tears and an apology. But I think he knew that if he went to trial, a whole lot of things would come out that he didn't want people, including those closest to him, to know. More important, he also had to know that the odds were that after an embarrassing trial, he'd probably lose anyway and wind up doing a whole lot more time in prison than the 30 months prosecutors agreed to.

But one thing is clear: His defiance disappeared pretty quickly, and all things considered, he handled the situation as well could be expected.

So it was all about contrition today -- until he got going on Kaufman's show. Then he showed a glimpse of the defiance you see in that mug shot of his. The ball got rolling when Kaufman mentioned that Fitzroy Salesman, the former Miramar commissioner who is fighting his own charges at trial, had introduced him to federal agents.

"Yeah, [Salesman] had called my office and indicated that there were some individuals he felt that I should meet that were looking to do some business with the county, and I've always had an open-door policy, Joyce... I've always believed in helping

Lippman, Smith, patriotic lady, Rothstein, Adler

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"There is a lot of fictions and half-truths so far, and we want to make sure the record is complete with the full truth," he said. "At the end of the day, he is as much a victim as anyone else is in this case."

Lippman earned all the money he received at the firm and has been fully cooperating with investigators examining Rothstein's $1.2 billion fraud based on financing fake settlements, Zimet said. He said he does not expect his client to be criminally charged.

"The allegations against Rothstein was that he used the legitimate law firm as a front for the Ponzi scheme," Zimet said. "Lippman was the cornerstone in that legitimate law firm. He had nothing to do with the Ponzi scheme."